Posted on: May 19, 2012
Gregsylvania
Verified ownerGames: 40 Reviews: 8
A Unique Cult Classic.
I'm trying not to candy-coat this game, and the review is meant for first-time players. When Silver came out, it was very dividing. While reviewers were lukewarm, fans immediately gave it a cult following. It does a lot of cool things, like good voice acting, tense atmosphere, great art design, and some interesting real-time combat mechanics. Unfortunately, some people may be turned off by the lame story, lack of guidance from the game, and weird difficulty decisions. The plot is simple faire: The evil king Silver has stolen all of the women for himself, and the player character David must gather a party to rescue his wife, the rest of the women, and defeat Silver. The plot is lame, and the writing is flat and uninteresting. This is not to say the narrative is ultimately bad, though. There is good story-telling here, but it mostly comes from things like character interaction, and the wonderfully-designed levels and great art style. Ally characters are not especially well-written, but they're likable and distinguishable enough in combat that you'll quickly develop favorites and tailor your parties thusly to take into the dungeons. Speaking of dungeons, each level and section of the game is vibrant and atmospheric, and each dungeon is more fun than the last. Getting to these is sometimes frustrating, though. See, although Silver is a linear tale, exploration is mostly non-linear, meaning you can go pretty much anywhere from a certain point, but you're sometimes never given an indication of where to actually go. This creates frustrating instances in first playthroughs where you're literally just wandering the world map trying to find the one screen where a scripted event will trigger, or where a previously-blocked path will now be open. I still remember message boards full of people just raging because they didn't know how to open the gate in the castle basement, because you needed a ranged character to lock onto and hit a hidden switch next to the gate. The gameplay itself is fun. As you go around picking up new allies, each of them has their own special niche such as melee weapons, magic, hand-to-hand, bows, etc. Fighting is done real time in a hack-and-slash manner, and while the combat system takes a bit of acclimation to get used to (sort of like a streamlined Resident Evil but with more options), it's ultimately well-designed and serves well with the rest of the game. You can take control of each character individually, which is welcome because they're not particularly bright, and do not prioritize their targets well. If I could give one hint though, always take a ranged unit with you. You absolutely need them to solve some puzzles, and there are nasty enemies that can only be taken out with arrows/magic/thrown weapons. This game is hard, as well. There are no real villages, and only one screen with stores, and absolutely no inns, so you have to make due with all of the healing items that you have, and drops are inconsistent. Sometimes, you'll get a bunch of potions and food in a row, but then can go a whole dungeon without any substantial consumable items. Just remember to grind where you can, and take all optional side-quests to get extra items and more characters. The game may be difficult, but it gives the tools necessary to overcome it if you are patient. Overall, Silver has some flaws, but what it does well makes it worth playing. Its atmosphere and gameplay make it fun to play, but its lack of direction will frustrate first-time players.There's some interesting stuff here, but you have to be dedicated in order to get to it all.
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